Tom Petty’s Wife and Daughters Now Clashing Over Salad Dressing

The battle among Tom Petty's family for control over his estate has now extended into condiments.

According to reports, his widow and trustee of his estate, Dana, is accusing Petty's daughters from his first marriage, Adria and Annakim, of wanting to create lines of merchandise that use his likeness.

Page Six writes that it has seen a new legal filing from Dana. “Adria wanted to authorize Tom’s name and likeness to be used to promote products akin to Paul Newman, whose face adorns bottles of salad dressing and so on," it states. "But Tom would never have permitted such a thing, he never ‘sold out’ while he was alive and refused to do any such thing despite numerous opportunities. Dana is certain Tom’s fans would also find it a sad perversion of Tom’s legacy.”

The document notes that "Dana cannot allow Daughters to continue down this path of destroying everything their father was about." It adds that Adria and her sister Annakim are being “reprehensible and unthinkable." Dana alleges that they've “responded with abuse, threats and lawsuits" and that "Adria’s foul behavior … has caused enormous damage to many of Tom’s professional relationships.”

Even though Dana is the trustee, the daughters were awarded "equal participation" in decisions regarding his estate, but it's undetermined if this means Adria and Annakim should be treated as one entity, giving them 50 percent of the vote, or as individuals, which would give them each one-third. A few weeks ago, they sued their stepmother for $5 million that they claim she's moved to a limited liability company established by Dana.

“Dana Petty would have done almost anything to avoid all of this," her lawyer Adam Streisand said. "Over the past weeks and months, however, the behavior of her stepdaughters Adria and Annakim has gone from unconscionable to unhinged – and it needs to be stopped."

Streisand added that Petty "entrusted his wife Dana to choose how all three women could work together to carry on Tom’s legacy. But Adria and Annakim thought they could bully Dana and cast her aside. In the process, they’ve threatened, maligned and sued the people Tom worked closely with for decades. Her loyalty to her husband and the people he loved and trusted gave her the strength to fight, not only for herself, but for the whole Tom Petty and Heartbreakers family.”

The lawyer for Adria and Annakim, Alex Weingarten, has fought back, saying that Dana has yet to set up the necessary business required to control his catalog and intellectual property.

“Dana and her lawyer are basing their case on smoke and mirrors," said Weingarten. "Every claim they make is demonstrably false. Adria and Annakim are laser focused on one thing – honoring and protecting their father’s legacy and enforcing the terms of his trust, as written.”